HAMPTON, Ga. — Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards didn’t expect each other to drive the way they did Sunday night, and both seemed flabbergasted by the other’s explanation of their near-crashes at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The two drivers spoke for about five minutes shortly after the race before Gordon walked away. They spoke again briefly in the driver motorhome lot about 15 minutes later and shook hands.

While Edwards made a point to say he didn’t think the hard feelings would linger, it was obvious that both weren’t satisfied with at least the initial discussion.

Early in the race, Gordon slid in front of Edwards for position. Edwards and Gordon were later battling side by side and made contact.

“I have a problem with a guy when I apologize for sliding him and he proceeds to tell me all the things that I did wrong in the race,” Gordon said as he walked to the motorhome lot. “I didn’t hear him apologizing for any of the things that he did.

“I tried to have a regular conversation and that didn’t seem to be possible with him.”

Edwards, also speaking before their second conversation, said that he was angry over the initial slide job that cut him off.

“We don’t agree on what happened and finally he got frustrated enough with the conversation that he just walked away, which might be smart,” Edwards said.

Gordon was trying to do everything he could as he vies for a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“He just slide-jobbed me and I thought it was really out of character for him and I didn’t understand what was going on there,” Edwards said. “I did everything I could not to wreck us both.

“And so naturally the next time we were around each other, I raced him as hard as I could. Going down the backstraightaway, I thought he just ran into my door and kind of tore up our right side. He thought I ran into him.”

Edwards said he didn’t think the issues would linger. He doesn’t think any of the contact was intentional.

“I really felt like he was looking for another excuse to be mad at me,” Edwards said. “And I don’t understand it. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. That’s out of character.

“We don’t have these kind of problems. So we’ll just move on and hopefully laugh about it when we’re both in the Chase.”

Gordon thought Edwards’ reaction to the initial slide-job was out of character.

“I’ve never seen him drive me like that,” Gordon said. “It was pretty wild. He didn’t like that I slid him early in the race. We went into (Turn) 1 and he took my line away to keep me behind him and I was a lot better than him and I just dove inside.

“I came up a little bit too short on him. That was my fault. But he decided he was going to give me back, I guess, every other time I was around him. He did all night.”